Swift sets digital record

Thursday, January 7, 2010 – With more than 24.3 million digital tracks sold to date, Taylor Swift is the top-selling digital artist in music history, according to sales figures released yesterday by Nielsen SoundScan.

Swift's "Fearless" CD was 2009's top-seller, with sales last year in excess of 3.2 million copies, and she claimed both the numbers 1 and 2 positions atop Nielsen's BDS Top 10 Most Played Songs chart (all genres), with You Belong With Me and Love Story, respectively. She also topped the all format 2009 Top 10 Artist Airplay chart with over 1.29 million song detections, and the Top 10 Artist Internet Streams chart with more than 46 million song plays.

"Fearless" was also the top-selling album of 2008, and she is the youngest solo artist ever to top the year-end sales chart. The disc has sold 5 million units.

Swift's next television performance will be on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, broadcast live on CBS on Jan. 31. She is nominated for eight Grammies, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. She makes her feature film acting debut in Garry Marshall's "Valentine's Day," set for release on Feb. 12. Swift takes her sold-out Fearless tour back on the road in Australia next month. Her line of American Greetings cards will also hit stores in February.

CD reviews for Taylor Swift

Part Behind The Music style documentary and part concert film, Taylor Swift's new Blu-ray release offers an interesting hybrid approach to the typical live performance video - an approach that hits more than it misses. "Journey To Fearless" focuses on Swift's meteoric rise from aspiring grade-school singer/songwriter to award-winning country and pop megastar while sprinkling in live performances. Hardcore Swift fans will find a lot to love on this single-disc set (which is also »»»

Taylor Swift has made the best CD of her young career with her fourth CD. The biggest difference is that Swift's singing, spotty on previous releases and live performances, is far far superior here.
Swift wrote all 14 songs here, which like her other albums tend to deal with relationships that have gone south. Swift's songwriting always has been one of her strengths, and that continues to be the case here - both lyrically and musically. Put simply, Swift knows a lot about penning »»»

Taylor Swift took the county world by storm with her huge selling debut and its five hit singles. With a huge marketing push and myspace, Swift was on her way. Kind of like an Avril Lavigne for the teen female country set.
Sophomore slump? There's no indication of that. Swift once again writes her material - all 13 songs here with help sometimes from Liz Rose, Colbie Caillat and John Rich. Swift writes of what she knows about - relationships and teen love come and gone in songs speak to her fans. »»»

Editorial: Walking the talk –
When names like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon and the Hag are invoked, you're talking hard core country. These are the touchstones of country , the guys who made country music what it was and still is (or maybe can be). When these folks would sing about being down-and-out and the rough-and-tumble, they knew of what they were singing about. Fast forward a few years to the country singers of today. »»»

Concert Review: Old, new, it's all good for Platt & The Honeycutters –
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters were not mounting the stage with anything particularly new to push. The quartet's self-titled fifth album came out just over 1 ½-years ago. Lest one think that Platt and band were growing tired of life on the road, far from it.
In a well-delivered 85-minute set, Platt and The Honeycutters turned that ancient... »»»

Concert Review: Lake Street Dive ends the year in style –
Lake Street Dive may have been looking back when it offered that traditional New Year's song "Auld Lang Syne" as the new year rolled in. No matter which way the band looks - forwards or backwards - life is good.
For the second time in six weeks, Lake Street Dive was back home (the Brooklyn-based group formed at the local New England... »»»

Suffice it to say that the past has always loomed large throughout Chip Taylor's career. That's all the more obvious if only for the fact that Taylor wrote some of the biggest pop hits of the '60s, "Wild Thing"... »»»

Dan Tyminski (known simply as "Tyminski" on his 2017 release "Southern Gothic") has traditional music roots and unassailable bluegrass street cred especially given his membership in Alison Krauss' Union Station. He is also a powerful songwriter and has been writing songs for himself and others for years now.... »»»

Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn have powerhouse individual talents; each has followed an estimable career path to where they find themselves today: making complex, but spare, records, writing music together and touring with their son Juno. Their new release, "Echoes In The Valley" features mostly songs written by Fleck and Washburn, banjos, Washburn's strong vocals and very little else.... »»»

Is Ronnie Milsap proud of his age? For a clue, look no further than the name of his "76 for 76" Tour. There are some other numbers the North Carolina native is probably fond of, such as 40 number 1 records or 6 Grammys. »»»

California country singer-songwriter Alice Wallace is back with her fourth album, as "Into the Blue" marks her debut for the female-owned Rebelle Road label, a group intent on giving women a stronger platform in music. »»»

Formed in 2007, Balsam Range already earned many international Bluegrass Music Association Awards across six albums. On their seventh, the acoustic quintet features four-part harmonies on most tunes, while the »»»

Mitchell Tenpenny is yet one more artist stretching the definition of country music - nearly to the breaking point. While he sings with a distinctly enjoyable, Otis Redding-like soulful voice, the arrangements to these songs »»»

Dolly Parton's soundtrack to the movie "Dumplin'" includes a whole lot of Dolly music, both old and new. This movie tells character Sillowdean "Dumplin'" Dickson's story of participating in a local beauty pageant. »»»

There's not a lot of room for argument to say that men singing country music today are different than the stars on the old Porter Wagoner show. Many have ditched the cowboy hat. They're hip-hop fans... »»»